The former owner of a Southington business that installs fire-protection systems will spend 16 months in prison for his role in a construction kickback scheme, federal authorities say.

Michael Uszakiewicz, 52, of Prospect, was sentenced Friday in Hartford federal court on his conviction of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for paying as much as $500,000 in bribes to obtain construction contracts in Stamford, the Connecticut U.S. Attorney's Office said Friday. He had faced a maximum prison term of 20 years.

As previously reported, from approximately 2011 to 2014 Uszakiewicz and other contractors paid between $250,000 to $500,000 in bribes to an employee of Stamford-based Building and Land Technology (BLT) Inc. in exchange for millions of dollars in construction contracts.

Under the plea, Uszakiewicz agreed to forfeit $1.1 million.

BLT employee Javed Choudhry, of Glastonbury, received the bribes from Uszakiewicz and awarded the Southington business various construction projects in Stamford, authorities said.

Choudhry pleaded guilty in May 2017 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return. He was sentenced in September to eight months in prison and ordered to repay $47,000.

Kevin Dunn, the president of Delmar Electrical Contractors in Watertown, also admitted that he bribed Choudhry and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He was sentenced in October to one year of probation, prosecutors said.